Blog

The Practice of Prayer

1. Twice a day set apart a minimum of fifteen minutes each as soon as waking up and just before going to bed.

2. Sit up straight with your legs stretched and body straight and the body relaxed. A kneeling position with hands and head slightly lifted up with eyes closed is found to have tremendous effect for prayer.

3. Take a deep breath and release it slowly after closing your eyes. It helps with the circulation of blood in our body.

4. Concentrate your mind on God and on His goodness to you and thank Him for all good things you enjoy in life one by one. Say it loudly to yourself so that you could hear what you say so that your concentration is not lost. Do it for the first five minutes. You may sing a song of praise at this time instead, with eyes closed and with full concentration. We are told that He lives up on the praises of His people (Ps.22:3).

5. Then for the next five minutes repeat to yourself a verse of Scripture which assures you of God’s wonderful work in your life. You might say it aloud to yourself, “I am a child of God through Christ”, or say “God has blessed me with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” or say, “The Lord is my shepherded, and I shall not want” or “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. And visualize yourself as safe and sound in the hands of the Lord. Do this for a minimum of five minutes. And never entertain any negative thought any time in your life (Ph.l.4:8,9). It is called positive affirmations.

6. Then take another deep breath and continue with eyes closed to pray for others and pray for your own needs for the day. And take your time for it. Our Lord said, “For truly I say to you that whoever shall say to this mountain, Be moved and be cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he said shall occur, he shall have whatever he said (Mk.11:23).

7. Do it at the same time daily without fail with eyes closed and in full concentration. Force yourself to do it by discipline for the first three weeks. If you can do it for three weeks, it would become a habit with you and you could do it without much difficulty later on.

Closing one’s eyes while praying, does it really help? It is a common knowledge today that our brain is divided in to left and right and each has essentially different functions to perform. It is also known today that our brain produces electronic pulses as it vibrates regularly. When our eyes are open and when we do any physical activity our left brain vibrates at 14-21 cycles per second (cps). When our eyes are open, it is the left side of our brain which is activated usually and it is analytical in nature and activity oriented in function. But when we close our eyes and begin to concentrate on something, the right side of our brain begins to be activated and the vibration is reduced to 7-14 cps. This is the center of our brain and it takes us to the strongest part of our mind power which is on the right side. When we sleep the cps reaches 4-7 and in a deep sleep it is 0-4 which is a kind of unconscious stage. In our sleep right side of our brain controls all our internal organs. The activity of our brain between sleep and wake up, that is, the position with eyes closed in a relaxed mood when we concentrate on something, is the creative and intuitive part of our mind and it is the center of our brain’s activities. It is called the Alpha mind. If someone is able to cultivate the habit of remaining in this position of the mind for some time regularly, it is said to have enormous effect on one’s active life. Perhaps, Solomon revealed this long before any of our modern day scientists (Ecc.10:2). This revelation can indeed help us in our prayer life.